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Clara’s gone. Gallifrey’s back. The Doctor’s suffering from partial amnesia. And the Master is auditioning for the lead in Mary Poppins.

Series nine of Doctor Who has finally reached its conclusion – but where does it sit in the grand scheme of things?

‘Same old, same old. Just the Doctor and Clara Oswald in the TARDIS.’

In terms of quality, this year’s been up and down like the Doctor’s yoyo. Most people would agree that the Zygon episodes were a high point – impeccably written, loaded with great ideas, and more socially relevant than ever. The Dalek stories that opened the series were a bit more hit and miss, but Julian Bleach’s Davros is always fun to watch, and Michelle Gomez was once again brilliant.

One of the most frustrating things has been the squandering of good ideas.

Under The Lake was possibly the most frightening Doctor Who has been since the minotaur stalked the corridors of The God Complex. The scene where the ghostly Pritchard cornered the terrified Lunn had me hiding behind the sofa.

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But Before The Flood – the story’s second part – was indecipherable. While the Fisher King was a visually impressive, frightening creation whose role was to stand in a basement and glower over the Doctor for a couple of minutes, just before he went for a swim.

The same thing happened again a couple of weeks later. The Girl Who Died was a fun, entertaining romp – full of anachronisms, but we didn’t care.

It was followed by The Woman Who Lived, which was forty-five minutes of whining about immortality, and little else.

I’m all for the show dealing with big ideas, but it’s helpful if there’s something resembling a story in there.

‘Your reign of terror will end with the sight of the first crying child, and you know it.’

If Peter Capaldi spent most of series 8 veering between William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee, this year he was half Tom Baker, half Pat Troughton.

The writing may have been uneven but you can’t fault his performance.

This new, lighter Doctor worked brilliantly – and Capaldi’s blazed through this series with sheer enthusiasm, unwavering bravado and the sorts of speeches that win awards.

By the way, the checked trousers work. And can we get a carrot for his lapel?

‘Nothing’s sad ’til it’s over. Then everything is.’

I’m going to miss Clara. Free of the love triangle that plagued her in series 8, she was sparky and fun and her chemistry with the Doctor was nothing short of wonderful.

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Jenna Coleman was terrific to watch and Clara stayed likeable, even when it became apparent that her increasing recklessness would eventually be her undoing.

She dangled from the TARDIS, she had an argument with her Zygon doppelganger – and who can forget the scene with the cards?

But I’m sure I’m not the only person who was disappointed that she didn’t actually stay dead.

It was all going so well: we had, at the end of Face The Raven, the first honest-to-God unambiguous companion death since Adric.

I didn’t even mind that the Doctor spent most of Heaven Sent talking to Jenna Coleman’s back. It worked.

But then she ran off to explore the universe with Ashildr and, once more, it’s like the whole thing never happened. I know the fans are lobbying for a spin-off but really, would it really be too much to ask to kill someone off properly? Just once?

‘These days, I’m all about wearable technology’

Here’s my confession: I like the sunglasses. OK? Yes, the screwdriver is back and we will rejoice, but the sonic shades worked, and Capaldi looks cool in them.

The guitar is in serious danger of outstaying its welcome – do we really need to see it every other week? – but it did, at least, provide one of the highlights of the series, as the Doctor sat mournfully in an American diner (oh, all right, a disguised TARDIS) picking out Murray Gold’s wistful ‘Clara’.

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Perhaps the biggest praise we can heap upon series 9 has been the risks it’s been prepared to take.

Regular cliffhangers! Found footage! An entire episode (well, more or less) that featured only the Doctor!

The setup for Sleep No More may have been wildly ridiculous (sleep crust monsters? Really?) but there was no denying the episode’s power to frighten – particularly in its final seconds, as Reece Shearsmith dissolved into a pile of…something, guaranteeing sleepless nights for thousands of youngsters.

And then there was Heaven Sent, which I think we can all agree was an absolute masterpiece, with some of Steven Moffat’s best writing in years.

Rachel Talalay’s fantastic direction deserves special attention – both in that and in the series finale, in which the Doctor spent six minutes on Gallifrey not saying a single word.

Whatever happens next, wherever the show goes, I think we can look back at 2015 as a Difficult Second Album year for the Twelfth Doctor – not entirely successful, but full of memorable moments, crowd-pleasing nods to the past, and stories we’ll be talking about for years.

Oh, and please bring back Donald Sumpter, and make him be Rassilon again. He was marvellous.